I might have been wrong, assuming other people were well-informed while they weren't. This is what I just read, on this page:

Paul says: An M9 replacement will depend on how many of the Kodak 18MP sensors Leica has remaining. If you look at the Kodak website you will find that Kodak has discontinued this sensor. So it is only a matter of time before a different sensor will need to be installed.

Robert van der Sanden says: @Paul: where did you find that info? I couldn’t find any such news on the Kodak website and to be honest it would highly surprise me given that this sensor is Leica specific and the M9 is booming.

Paul says: I found it at the link below. It is one of those things you really need to dig for. I had to read between the lines to say this is the sensor Leica is using, since this is the only 18MP sensor Kodak is listing.http://www.kodak.com/global/en/business ... 1938/15009Also, from this webpage, if you follow the link at the above left it will take you to Kodak’s list of current sensor offerings. There are some interesting choices.Finally, before anyone gets excited about this sensor being discontinued. If this is the sensor Leica is using, I am sure they ordered enough to support several years of maximum M9 production, plus spare parts.

Robert van der Sanden says: Leica uses the KAF-18500, which isn’t listed on the Kodak website as it’s Leica specific. It has only been mentioned once in a news flash on their site, to announce the introduction of the M9.What a releif

Well, not really a relief I'd say, I'd quite like to see a new M. Either to buy instead of the M9, or to allow the price of the M9 to go down a little...

Leica Rumors have flagged a Tweet suggesting that Leica is almost ready with a mirrorless solution. And I thought the M-series already was mirrorless.

Joking aside this may be, as has already been suggested in the Leica User forum thread The R solution - more details, what owners of the now defunct R-system have been waiting for. Somehow I doubt that any such camera from Leica would use the R-lenses as its primary lenses but that then begs the question of whether Leica would want, or even have the resources, to simultaneously launch a new lens system. It'll be interesting to see if more emerges but I, for one, won't be getting too excited on the basis of a single Tweet.

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Update: It seems that Leica share the joke from the first paragraph in my post above. From AP:

In a statement issued this afternoon a Leica spokesman said: 'Leica has been producing mirrorless cameras since 1954 (starting with the M3, and even before this, if you consider the screw mount cameras).

'With the Leica M9 (pictured), we have the most compact, full format, mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses on the market.

'Of course, we won't stop with the M9, but it is definitely too early to discuss a successor to this model.'

I'm not sure that justified the headline writer's translation of that statement into "Leica: No plan for new 'compact' camera system" but maybe there was more to the interview than the one-liner that was published.

I don't remember Leica being quite so eager to deny things in the past but I haven't watched them that closely or for that long. But somehow I doubt that Leica has the funds to develop a totally new system as they probably have quite enough on their plate with the current S and M systems. If it weren't for the evident unhappiness of the R system owners I'd not even consider a genuine Leica EVIL camera a remote possibility in the near future - maybe a rebranded Panasonic but no more.

Unless anyone out there knows better... C'mon now, you know it's good to share.

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Not fazed by the Leica denials Leica Rumors has passed on the following:

Mirrorless APS-C camera with movable screen

iM mount

Noctilux iM 0.95/35

Compactness and simplicity for endless creativity

I was initially surprised about the APS-C sensor but then I reflected, in a mirrorless sort of way, that in the light of my thread Size Matters the smaller sensor size is pretty irrelevant if one can put an f/0.95 35mm lens in front of it. I also thought that specifying such a large lens on the camera might catch out the images above as fake but, on the assumption that the lower image is roughly to scale (camera width of 122mm), then there's plenty of room in the lens barrel to support a lens with an entrance pupil of about 37 mm.

So these images are either fakes, part of a genuine Leica design concept or even, unlikely as it may be, from something that really exists. Does anyone recognise any parts of those rather lovely images from other cameras. If it is a PhotoShop effort then the perpetrator should go get him or herself a proper job designing camera bodies. Mmmm, tasty....

Bob.

P.S. I suppose that technically this post is out of place in this thread as the camera above clearly doesn't have an EVF.

P.P.S. I note there have been some comments to the effect that the "iM" name alone gives the lie to the images as it seems it has some unfortunate historical associations in Germany.

Wow, what a day. A new compact system camera from Pentax, albeit with a 5.5x cropped sensor, and a new EVIL camera from Leica with an APS-C (plus?) sensor. Yes, this time it's official though we won't see the hardware until late next year. From this BJP article we have:

Speaking to BJP and other representatives of the UK press at a Paris-event, Leica's chairman Dr. Andreas Kaufmann and CEO Alfred Schopf have confirmed that the German company is developing a new compact camera system.

Leica's goal is to create a new market in the Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens segment.

"It's more than an idea," says Schopf. "You will see something at the next Photokina [trade show in Cologne]." The new system will use an "APS-C sized sensor at least," says Schopf.

But, Leica says that the camera will differ from what other manufacturers, such as Panasonic, Olympus, Samsung and Sony, are doing in the EVIL market. "We will always do things differently," says Kaufmann. "And we always take our time."

Both executives declined to provide more details about the new system, but hinted that the electronic viewfinder used will depend on the sensor selected.

The new camera would become Leica's fourth system of cameras. Currently, the German company offers the M-system, the S-System and the X1 compact, fixed-lens camera.

For more on this and other snippets from Leica check out the full BJP article. Amateur Photographer magazine also have their own take on the story here.

I think this is going to be a fascinating story to follow. A large sensor EVIL camera with Leica build quality. Will we see a new lens system? Will it accept existing Leica glass, both M and R-system? Will it be at a price any of us can afford? Would you buy one?

Sound promising, but I think I'll stick to the rangefinder. I'm certainly interested to see what Leica comes up with though. Just before the M9 was announced, Stefan Daniel said in an interview that Leica wouldn't launch an EVIL (see full interview here). It would instead rely on Panasonic to do that...

Maybe things have changed in the two years since that interview. It certainly sounds as though that's the case as Leica are getting hands on with a choice of sensor. I wonder if the Leica EVIL will be co-announced with the M10?

I am certainly going to be following this news! My target is an M, but my declining eyesight may be a limiting factor, so a Leica EVIL camera with auto-focus and an EVF may be more suited to my real-world needs. Even the X1, with it's APS-C sensor size, has enough appeal to me, to have had me wishing for something similar, but perhaps a bit larger, and the ability to change lenses, or if fixed-lens, perhaps, a lens with a 50mm-equivalent field of view.

I am at least two to three years from being able to reasonably afford an M9/M10, so Photokina 2012 will be timely enough.